Human
by electroniccollectiondonut
Summary: Hakoda is watching Zuko and Aang train when he witnesses something he didn't expect. Vaguely philosophical ramblings disguised as a fic.


**A/N: I was listening to Savages by Marina and the Diamonds while reading Zuko angst and this just... happened. I should be working on my other story Revolutionaries (** **hint hint) but this wouldn't leave me alone.**

It had been three days since his son and the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation had rescued him from the Boiling Rock and for now, Hakoda trusted the young Firebender. At the moment, he was watching Aang's Firebending training with several other members of their little group. Zuko had been trying all morning to teach the monk a particularly advanced move, but Aang apparently didn't have the right mindset, or so Zuko said. Hakoda didn't pretend to know anything about bending, but it looked like Aang was doing it right. Well, except for the lack of fire.

Zuko sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Alright, this isn't working and I think I know why." Hakoda listened carefully, curiously. "In a real battle, this move would be a killing blow. But you already realized that, didn't you?" Aang nodded somewhat reluctantly. "To perform this move correctly, you have to have the resolve to go through with it. Like this." Zuko hesitated only a moment before running the kata himself, producing a burst of flame of which Hakoda had no doubt as to the lethality.

Aang looked somewhere between angry and sad. "I know, I know, but I can't. I'm not like you guys, okay? I can't just go around killing people! No matter how evil they are!"

And all of a sudden it wasn't about Firebending anymore. They way Zuko reacted spoke of a well-worn argument trapped in a stalemate, and Hakoda wondered what the argument was. The Fire Prince sighed again, walking toward the edge of the temple and back to Aang. "Aang," he started. but changed his mind halfway through and retraced his path from Aang to the temple's edge and back. And again, breaths measured as he gathered his thoughts. Hakoda watched, and just as he was becoming concerned for the prince's welfare, the boy spoke.

"Aang, do you consider yourself a good person?"

 _What?_ That was anything but what Hakoda had expected, and Aang seemed to share his sentiments.

"What?"

"Do you think you're a good person?"

"Well... yeah. Of course I'm a good person, I'm the Avatar."

Zuko inclined his head slowly, sitting on the floor and inviting Aang to sit with him. The monk obliged, looking at his teacher oddly as the Firebender prepared his next words. Hakoda wondered where they were going with this. He was the only one still watching them, as the rest had left when Zuko had started pacing, and he didn't think the boys were aware of their audience.

"So, you're a good person because you're the Avatar? Does that mean that if someone else was the Avatar, you, Aang, could be evil?"

Aang looked utterly horrified. "No! No, I'm good because I'm a monk. Monks are peaceful and kind and we don't kill people!"

"Ah." And Hakoda knew Zuko had just been graced with a piece of knowledge that would let him back Aang into a corner. "So, you consider yourself as Aang to be separate from yourself as the Avatar?" Hakoda could definitely see where Zuko was going with this. _Let him incriminate himself_ , he remembered one of the guards on the prison transport saying in regard to a trial he had watched. The sudden reminder that the boy had been raised in the Fire Nation royal court was like being dropped in icy water.

"Not really. I'm always me. Even when I'm in the Avatar State, there's still _me_ in there." Aang, the poor boy, was so confused.

"So you are always at least somewhat in control of your actions?" Zuko's end game was so glaringly obvious to anyone with training in politics, or even someone without the naivety Aang was demonstrating just now.

"Yeah, unless I'm being possessed by a past Avatar."

Zuko nodded. "Do you remember ending the Seige of the North?" Hakoda did wonder how that had happened. Of course, he'd heard the stories, but they'd been so twisted down the grapevine that he was reluctant to believe any version of the tale.

"Yeah. I was, y'know, there." Aang spoke with the same tone Katara adopted when she was trying to explain a frightfully simple concept to a child.

"Were you separate from the Ocean Spirit when that happened?" Aang just nodded.

"So, technically, it was you who killed tens of thousands of Fire Nation soldiers, many of whom never even left their ships, who had families back home and who were unable to escape simply because they were following orders?" Aang's eyes had grown progressively wider as Zuko spoke, and it seemed the boy realized he only had two options. One, accept that he had killed more people than every member of their little group combined or, two, contradict Zuko's accusation and make a liar out of himself.

Zuko softened, and Hakoda could respect him for knowing that Aang had a limit. "It's- They were my people. It's not alright, but I forgive you. Let's try something else." Aang nodded warily. It seemed he wanted to make sure he didn't walk himself into another trap.

"You consider yourself a good person." Aang nodded a little glumly, and Hakoda wondered where Zuko was taking this now.

"What about Katara? Is she a good person?" Aang nodded again, more enthusiastically. "Did you know that when I first joined your group, she threatened to, and I quote, 'end your destiny right then and there, permanently' and it was terrifyingly obvious that she meant it. Is she still a good person?" Hakoda thought Aang might have been even more horrified than he was.

"Yes! Yes, she is. Katara would never do that."

Zuko sighed. "Aang, the world isn't perfectly black and white. She would have. I'm sure of it. She still might."

"But... She's still a good person," Aang protested.

"I never said she wasn't. What about Sokka and Toph and Suki and Hakoda and Teo and the Duke and me? We've all been at least partially responsible for the death of another human. Are we good?" Hakoda had started listening even more intently when he heard his name, interest piquing when the prince mentioned himself.

"Yes."

"Is Azula a good person?"

Aang was suitably horrified. "No!"

"Okay. I want you to think really hard about this one. What about me and Azula? I've done a lot of the same things she has. I hunted you, and I've killed people, and I helped her conquer Ba Sing Se. So why am I a good person, and she a bad person?"

"Because..." Aang hesitated, and Hakoda tried to come up with his own answer. "Because you chose to defy your father. Azula didn't." Aang nodded firmly once, satisfied with his answer, but Hakoda knew Zuko would come up with something to refute it.

"It wasn't a choice, Aang. I had already defied my father in the past, by accident, and being allowed to return to the Fire Nation wasn't a second chance. The Firelord wanted me where he could keep an eye on me. I was defying my father just by being there. Azula couldn't have defied our father even if she'd tried. He would have destroyed her entirely and she wouldn't have been given a chance to put herself back together because he knows she cares for him, but he doesn't care for her. He doesn't care for anyone, he plays people like a game of chess. So, knowing that, do you believe that Azula has the capacity for good?"

"No... I don't- I don't think so because... by the time anyone truly thought she could be good, it was already too late for her. She was all evil."

Hakoda was slightly surprised by the way Aang was talking about the Fire Princess, but Zuko just nodded. "I think you're right. But that raises an interesting point. A person can be all, pure evil, right?" Aang nodded, though there was a trace of uncertainty in the movement. "So can a person also by really, truly good with no evil at all?" An interesting point, indeed.

"Yeah- Yeah, they can."

"So, people can be just as good as they can be evil. It's human nature to try to get what you want, and if being good gets that faster than being evil, then good makes more sense, and vice versa. My father is one of the evil ones, but he believes that he's good. So the only way he'll really stop is if he's killed."

Aang nodded slowly. "I guess you're right. I don't want to, but I'll have to so that the world is safe."

Zuko smiled and stood, dusting himself off and offering a hand to Aang. "Now, let's try that move again," he said, making eye contact with Hakoda for a short moment as Aang got into his stance. The little monk succeeded in making the same burst as flame as Zuko had, and the prince turned away from the Water Tribe Cheif to give instruction.

 **Wow, this got long. And philosophical. Oh well.**


End file.
